Crescent landfill reported as hazard

Wednesday

Feb 24, 2010 at 12:01 AMFeb 24, 2010 at 10:16 PM

By Bob Bauder

CORRECTION: The Duquesne Light company owns a coal ash landfill in Crescent Township parallel to Route 151 that environmentalists say is contaminating ground water in that area. The owner was incorrectly identified in a report issued by two environmental groups that was published by The Times on Tuesday.

CRESCENT TWP. -- Environmentalists on Wednesday identified a landfill near the decommissioned Phillips Power Plant in South Heights as one of 31 coal ash dumps across the nation that pose a hazard to drinking water, rivers or streams.

The Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, two nonprofit environmental organizations, reported the landfill in Crescent Township is leaching contaminants into the local groundwater table. The landfill bordered by Route 151 has been closed since the 1990s.

Tests from monitoring wells around the landfill indicate that levels of chloride, sodium, manganese, aluminum, fluoride and total dissolved solids found in the water have at times exceeded secondary drinking-water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the report. In addition, the contamination is moving through the groundwater away from the landfill site, it said.

But the EPA does not consider those contaminants a risk to human health, even though they can cause such things as discoloration of teeth and skin, and discoloration, odor or a foul taste in drinking water.

The EPA does not enforce the secondary standards, which were established as a guide for public drinking-water sources to manage their systems, according to the agency Web site.

Environmentalists also noted that two ash dumps once located at the plant along Route 51 in South Heights polluted wells three decades ago that supplied the Creswell Heights Joint Authority.

Duquesne Light Co., which previously owned the Phillips plant, was fined $50,000 in 1983 after the well contamination was documented. The company, which closed Phillips in 1987, has since conducted environmental remediation of the plant area.

The plant and landfill are now owned by RRI Energy Inc., based in Houston, Texas. A company official said Wednesday that the company continues to monitor the wells but was unaware of any groundwater problems around the Phillips plant.

Steve Davis, RRI’s director of solid-waste management, said he could not comment on specifics of the report until he has a chance to read it in detail.

“There may be some materials down in the groundwater, but there isn’t a risk to human health or concerns,” he said.

The report findings came from information contained in EPA and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection files.

Environmentalists said the report was issued Wednesday to document damages caused by coal ash contamination in an effort to prompt the federal government to establish national regulations for coal ash dump sites, which are not currently regulated.

The Phillips plant might not violate federal drinking-water standards, but there are plenty of other coal ash dumps that do, including some in Pennsylvania, the environmentalists said.

The EPA does not presently consider contaminants held in coal ash a risk to human health. But it notes that such waste contains toxic metals that may pose a threat to public health and the environment if improperly disposed.

In 2000, the agency announced that it planned to develop national standards for coal ash, which is created by coal combustion. Coal-fired power plants produce nearly 140 million tons of the stuff each year.

Since then, according to environmentalists, the federal government has been “sitting on” the release of regulations at the request of industry lobbyists.

EPA relies on the state DEP to regulate coal-ash sites in Pennsylvania, and neither agency is doing its job, according to Lisa Graves-Marcucci, the Environmental Integrity Project’s Pennsylvania coordinator for community outreach.

She said the regulatory agencies provided the information contained in the reports and yet have not acted to correct problems found in their own files.

“The point I’m making is as a resident of Pennsylvania and someone who lives near several of these coal waste sites, I don’t sleep any better thinking that DEP is minding the store,” she said. “Clearly there is something amiss here, and it is lack of enforcement.”

DEP spokesman Tom Rathbun said he could not comment on the report until agency representatives read it. He said the agency enforces its regulations.

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